Flight
by Wagthedog
Summary: Rodney and Carson are separated from the team on what was thought to be a much more primitive and peaceful planet. Can they be saved in time?
1. Chapter 1

**Flight** - _by Wagthedog_

Disclaimer: All copyrights apply and all that stuff. Everything belongs to TPTB, except what doesn't. Everything is used without permission or prior consent.

Characters: McKay, Beckett, Sheppard, Ronon, Zelenka, Teyla

Summary: Rodney and Carson are separated from the team on what was thought to be a much more primitive and peaceful planet. Can they be saved in time?

Notes: In my world, "Sunday" doesn't exist. This has been sitting on my hard drive unfinished since the show's cancellation, and I figured during a break in school, I should work on finishing it and sharing to keep the dream alive.

Thanks to smudgesister for the great beta!

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**Chapter 1**

"Oh god, oh god. Stop. Please stop."

"Just a bit further, Rodney." Beckett tightened his arm around Rodney and adjusted his grip on the military web belt at his friend's waist. He hissed as Rodney stumbled again, sending another jolt through his torn and bloody wrist where one of the Coceme projectiles had shattered his watch and sent the sturdy timepiece flying off into the thick moon-lit forest along with his .9mm.

"I can't, Carson."

Beckett slowed and turned his head to listen to the weapons fire that had receded into the background, listing to the side as Rodney hopped on his good leg to regain his equilibrium. Despite their slow progress, they'd seemed to put a fair amount of distance between themselves and the escalating battle back at the village, but that did little to assuage the doctor's feeling of ill ease. The two men were still cut off from their teammates and the stargate on the other side of the valley, and radio contact was intermittent at best—thanks to a highly ionized atmosphere.

Beckett grit his teeth, shifting most of Rodney's weight onto his hip before swinging his friend down to settle against the nearest tree.

"Don't you have anything you can give me?" The physicist ground the heel of his good leg in the dirt, pushing himself back against the tree, almost as if trying to crawl away from the pain.

After one more vigilant stare back through the dense undergrowth, Beckett crouched down, carefully dividing his attention between Rodney and the forest behind them. "I'm sorry. I had to leave my pack behind. We'll have to make do with what we've got in our vests."

"What? A few bandages and an EpiPen?" Rodney laughed harshly, and then sucked a few breaths in through clenched teeth as another jolt of pain shot through his leg. "Might as well have packed Band-Aids and an injector full of hydrochloric acid for all the good it'll do me. Oh god, I can't believe I'm going to die on this worthless backwater planet, a victim of a holy war between the Schmucks and the Cochise…who woulda thought this could get any worse than last year when we came here to trade a bunch of stone worshippers for a new source of mystery meat, purple grain, and not-coffee beans for our dwindling supplies."

Beckett grabbed for Rodney's wrist as it flailed around, stilling the man's movements and pressing warm fingers into the pulse points. "It's the Coceme and the Shme," Beckett corrected smoothly. "And you're not gonna die, Rodney. It's just a flesh wound. You need to calm down. Your heart rate is too fast."

"I'm in pain, you Highland hack! Ow, dammit!" Rodney stiffened and then sagged back against the tree, panting heavily. "This sucks."

Beckett released his wrist and checked the bandage, peeling the layers of absorbent material back to reveal the frayed, blackened edges where the bullet had torn through Rodney's pants. "At least this time you'll not be coming home high as a kite from the natives' local version of peyote."

"They had complicated rituals. We didn't want to offend anyone. Ow! Do you have to be so rough?"

Beckett sighed and released the bandage. Rodney was always a challenge in the best of circumstances, but when he was in pain… "The bleeding is under control."

Carson paused as a shaking hand closed around his own bloody wrist, loosening up quickly in response as he grunted in pain. Rodney's blue eyes were dark and glassy in the moonlight as he blinked down at his friend's injury. "What happened to you?"

Beckett eyed his wound critically for a moment in the half light, trying to flex his fingers through the pain, mentally detailing tendons, nerves, and blood supplies in the tight wrist compartment. Surgeons depended highly on dexterity and he hadn't taken the time to attend to his own injury. A little therapy and he'd probably be right as rain, though. "Don't you be worrying about me, Rodney. I'll be fine. I'm more worried about the children back at the village. They were sick enough as it was without all of this mess to put up with."

"What, this little thing." Rodney circled a hand around in the air half-heartedly. "What's a little hundred year old skirmish when the grass skirt-wearing fools we're trying to help, worship gods in a forest filled with an abundance of tradable minerals. Spears are no match for the projectile weapons the Coceme seem to have appropriated since our last visit." Rounds of P90 fire erupted closer to their position, answered in turn by the more antiquated Coceme armaments. Rodney snuck a look around the side of the tree and used a dirt-covered hand to swipe the perspiration off of his forehead. "Do you think anyone followed us?"

"With your leg, we left a fairly clear trail, I'm afraid."

"Maybe Ronon'll find us first."

"Wishful thinking." Carson expelled a heavy breath before he continued. "From the sounds of it, I think we're on our own for the moment and we've only your gun between us now." He held his hand up. "My aim was less than perfect to start with and we both know you'll be too bloody busy just concentrating on staying upright to shoot. And need I remind you that neither of us is trained in hand-to-hand combat? Pray it doesn't come to that."

"Hey, I'll have you know I've been practicing."

"Oh, shut it. Being forcibly dragged down to the gym by Colonel Sheppard once a month does not constitute practice, Rodney."

Rodney's eyes narrowed. "One of these days, Sheppard is going to find his ass shocked by his Ancient toilet seat."

"Good God, man, isn't it enough that you control the water temperature to everyone's showers, now you have to wreak havoc with the rest of the plumbing."

"I will do no such thing," Rodney gave his friend a pointed look. His eyes darted to the side nervously for a moment before sliding back. "But I think I foresee Zelenka's schedule freeing up. And FYI, he's still mad at Sheppard for breaking down his still."

"Aye, well, some of the younger marines are having a wee problem with portion control."

Rodney snorted. "Just because some of the military have a propensity for treating every party like it's a fraternity free-for-all sideshow, doesn't mean the rest of us should suffer."

The two Atlanteans flinched and snuck a quick look around the side of the tree once more as muzzle blasts from weapons fire lit the dark forest in a nearby clearing. Beckett grabbed Rodney's elbow and started to hoist him up. "Time to get moving. The war is waging closer this way."

They'd barely managed to get a step away from their natural forest shield before shots impacted into the wood, forcing them to dive back down to the ground. Rodney panted, trying not to let his injured leg get caught under him in the shuffle. "I think that answers our question about whether or not someone is following us!"

"Give me your gun." Beckett grabbed for Rodney's holster as he spoke, tapping the physicist's arm with his other hand. "Stay down low and head back toward the rocks."

"What? Don't be crazy! Tease me all you want about my skill with semi-automatic weapons, but you said it yourself. With that wrist, you might as well just sit back here, carve a Wiccan pentagram on the tree for protection and stick pins in a voodoo doll." He ducked to the side and grabbed his leg, hissing in pain as another projectile sent splinters of bark flying across their clothing.

Beckett moved into position at the tree, shoving at Rodney's hip lightly with a boot. "Shut your gob and get moving man. Fer Christ's sake, if you'd put half as much energy into moving as you do into complaining we'd be in a right bit less trouble now."

"Carson!"

"I'll be right behind you!"

Carson shifted the gun into his non-dominant hand, and struggled to pull off a series of half decent cover shots into the forest, wondering how the hell they were going to get out of this mess.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

I've gotten a lot of hits and some lovely reviews on the story so far. Hope the majority of you out there are enjoying! Thanks as always to the talented smudgesister! - _Wags_

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**Chapter 2**

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Would you get off of me!"

"Be still, Rodney. Keep your voice down. Someone might hear." Beckett let his head rest for a moment across Rodney's chest, waiting for the fire to let up along his injured wrist. Far above them, dirt fell in loose clumps from the edge of the mossy hole they'd fallen through at the base of the surface rocks. He tried to breathe steadily through his nose, fighting to ignore the uncomfortable way the bits of soil were working their way beneath his collar. After a few moments, he lifted his head and squinted into the darkness, trying to see past the small circle of light cast down from the hole that seemed miles above them.

"Head to the rocks, you said." Rodney did little to hide the displeasure in his strained voice.

Carson ignored the jibe. "Does it feel like anything's broken?" After an exaggerated sigh, he could feel Rodney wiggle his extremities a bit in a silent inventory.

"No, I don't think so."

"All right, then. I'm going to roll off of you."

Rodney's breath shot out of him in a wave of pain as Carson slid carefully to the side. "Gah!" He squinted as bits of dirt rained down on his unprotected face, forcing him to lift a hand to block it. Disgusted, he spit to the side. "Help me up."

Carson offered his good hand, and then the two men shuffled out of the meager light to the side of the cavern, peering up at the ceiling.

Rodney fingered the rock wall beneath his palm, trying to get a tactile sense of the texture without benefit of sight. "We won't be getting back out through that hole up there, this wall is almost vertical, and it's too smooth."

Carson stepped away, feeling his way around the perimeter. "Perhaps this is part of a cave system and we can find another way out."

"Ya think?"

"Ah, I've found an opening." Beckett felt the edges of the rock as it curved away from him and inched forward, but came up against a jutted outcrop of rubble and large stones. Several clumps fell off as he touched them and rolled to the ground. "Never mind, looks like a cave in." He moved off again around the outside wall until he found another gap and followed the wall for several feet around the corner. Listening quietly, he could hear small drips in the distance. "I think this'll do."

Rodney turned his head toward Carson's voice. "How big is it…I mean, it's not some tiny hole? I'm not good with small spaces."

Beckett smiled to himself. The image was clear in his mind of Rodney wringing his hands nervously. "Not to worry, we'll not be putting your spelunking skills to the test today, lad."

After a few limping, stumbling steps, Rodney joined Carson at the exit from their cavern. To Rodney's relief, the passage was high enough that he wouldn't even have to bend over.

Even so, Rodney reached for his radio and keyed the device at his ear hopefully. "McKay to Sheppard, come in." Static answered. In a smaller, less hopeful voice, "McKay to Ronon? Teyla, come in...Please, somebody. Trapped in a cave here."

"I'm sorry, Rodney, I don't think there's any other way to go about this." Beckett started to reach out to his friend.

Behind them, something thumped onto the ground and rolled toward them, stopping just a few feet away. A tiny red light blinked on the device, slowly increasing in tempo.

"Perhaps I spoke too soon about those spelunking skills." Carson made contact with Rodney's arm and yanked him away into the darkness.

"Where the hell did they get a damn electronic grenade!" Rodney stumbled on his bad leg and would've gone down if it hadn't been for Carson's steady hold on his arm and waist. "Not a good runner here, Carson!"

"I know!" Beckett pulled Rodney's arm across his shoulder and tried to adjust his gait to the physicist's own to make better time. "Just try to keep yourself from falling down."

The cave behind them flashed before the sound hit their ears, and the shockwave sent the two men tumbling against a side wall. In a tangle of arms, they pushed off and stumbled away from the primary blast, even as the ground shook and rock and dust fell from up above. After a few more faltering steps, Rodney's bad leg finally gave out and he went down with a shout of surprise. Half blind and choked by the debris in the air, Beckett grabbed an elbow and a fistful of clothing, and he dragged the physicist along the tunnel floor, farther away from the falling rock and into the blackness.

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry the last Chapter was a bit short, but that was where the cliffie ended up. This one is about twice as long. Hope that makes up for it. Anyone wondering where the rest of the team is? They'll be along soon..._Wags_

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**Chapter 3**

"Come on, then."

"Just gimme a minute, Carson." Rodney's voice was small and shaky in the darkness. After a steadying breath, Velcro ripped and a faint green glow lit up from the screen of the life signs detector.

"Barely more than candlelight. Not much use to us unless you want to be warned of an imminent attack by cave bats."

"Oh, ha. It might at least keep us from falling down another hole if we're careful."

Beckett watched Rodney's eerily green-lit features scrunch up in confusion in a strange slow motion blink as the light from the LSD cycled on and off, his fear of tight spaces momentarily forgotten. The physicist shook the LSD and tapped the side of it with his palm before checking the display again. "Interesting. It's not working right."

"Is it broken?"

"I don't think so. Our own electronics have been fairly unreliable with the ionized atmosphere, but Ancient tech has fared much better."

"I thought you said you scanned the area already."

Rodney pivoted left and right, trying to get a clear reading, dismissing the CMO with an impatient tone. "Please, Carson, we came here a year ago looking for ZedPMs and new trading partners. Nothing was found. Not by handheld scanner or jumper. The locals have a legend about there being Great Power in the forest to the west, where all their stone gods are supposed to be lurking"—dismissive wave—"although we weren't allowed anywhere near the place, hence closer inspection by cloaked jumper. The forest was too dense to see much, and we got squat on energy readings. These people had barely crawled out of mud huts."

"Your scans didn't find any evidence of radioactive substances at the time, either?"

"Not a one."

"I suppose that would have been too simple an explanation. Strangely enough, none of the adults have become sick and only some of the children. I wish I'd had more time with them, but I'd managed to weed out chemical and biological substances that we know of. None of them are related, so genetic disorders also seem unlikely."

Rodney stared at him, eyebrow raised.

"What?"

"This is all incredibly interesting, but how does it help us? Hello, trapped in a cave, here."

Beckett sighed. "I suppose it doesn't help us, Rodney, but if there's anything we can think of that might help the children…"

"Yes, yes, yes…Bobby and Sally are sick. Now can we focus?"

"You really can be a right git, ya know that?"

Rodney's eyes remained glued to the LSD. "Working here." He tapped the tiny screen again. "There, it's settled down. Let's go."

Rodney started out, free hand against the wall, holding the device out in front of him. After a number of feet, muttering, he stumbled over rocks and hissed as pain shot through his thigh. "Dammit!" He reached down to feel his leg, and the bit of wetness seeping through the bandage. "I think I've started bleeding again."

Beside him there was a click, and a tiny LED light flicked on, illuminating the rocks that had tripped him. The light swung around as Beckett knelt down to check the wound.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Rodney stiffened as Beckett pulled his leg forward to shine the light at the top of the bandage and the red stain starting to break its way through the padding.

"It's my penlight."

"Oh, of course, should've known you wouldn't go anywhere without that particular instrument of torture. Why didn't you volunteer it before, instead of watching me flail around in the dark?" Rodney jammed the LSD back in his pocket.

"Forgot I had it." Beckett peeled the bandage back. "The fall and the tumble in the explosion probably didn't help your wound." He popped the light between his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment against the pain as he forced his aching fingers to close around the knot behind Rodney's leg. Then with practiced movements, the strap was untied and the loose bandage replaced with a clean one from a pocket in his vest. This time, Beckett took extra care to pull the strapping behind the leg and back to the front, over top of the white pad before knotting it down firmly.

Rodney tensed and tried to pull away. "Warn a guy, will you."

A low rumble shook the floor and dust fell from somewhere overhead, coating their hair and clothes with another layer. Rodney fell backward and landed on his butt on the floor, eyes darting back and forth. As the shaking settled down, Rodney rested his head against the cool wall for a moment.

Beckett plucked the light from his mouth and ducked his head, raking a hand through his hair to dislodge some of the fresh dust. "That doesn't sound good. Can you stand?"

Rodney opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

"I'll take that as a yes." Carson grabbed an arm again and hoisted the landlocked physicist to his feet, letting him lean against the wall.

"Carson?"

"Hmm?"

"I can feel something on the wall. Shine your light up here." The penlight shifted again.

In the glow of Beckett's LED, a symbol appeared at chest height. Rodney reached out to trace it with his finger. A faintly glowing horizontal bar slowly coalesced, separated into six small squares with different symbols in the center of each, ghosting about two inches from the wall. Rodney glanced at Beckett in surprise and then moved his hand back and forth behind the bar, watching the blocks darken and lighten in a wave effect as his hand moved by. When he pulled his hand around to the front and waved it back and forth along the face of the bar, the same thing happened—the blocks followed his hand.

Beckett was impressed. "A hologram?"

"Hmm…maybe."

"Do you think the locals know this is down here?"

"I hope not. If they do, we could be looking at a repeat of the Genii."

Rodney let his finger hover over the left-hand side of the bar for a moment. The bar was a uniform ghostly gray until his finger was a couple of inches away, then the first square and symbol grew darker. A faint thrumming sound and slight glow issued from all around them.

"Should you be touching that?"

Rodney paused for a moment in barely concealed irritation. He dropped his hand and the thrum of power stopped. Beckett's LED was once again the only source of light. "Well normally, Carson, I don't just go jabbing fingers into strange alien technology, but I think I have an idea what this is for."

Another rumble shook the tunnel as the rocks above their heads ground together, raining debris down on them as the tunnel shifted.

"Oh, God!" Rodney shrunk down, mumbling a mantra to himself. "Find your happy place, clear skies..." The tunnel shook again. "Dammit, what a load of crap!'

Beckett held his arm over his head to protect him from the worst of it and then grabbed Rodney. "Pull yourself together. You said you knew what this was for!" He turned him back toward the bar.

With a shaking hand, Rodney touched his finger to the first square on the hovering bar. All around them, the dimness receded to reveal a dead end in the tunnel, as several small globes floating at head height began to glow, while some simply flickered and hummed like sickly gravity-defying light bulbs. On the ground, at Rodney's feet, the rock he'd tripped over had actually been one of the globes, apparently losing its fight with the planet's magnetic force to fall broken to the floor, as had a few of the other previously hovering fixtures around the tunnel.

Beckett smiled faintly and jostled Rodney's arm again in silent support, letting his hand linger a moment before releasing him. "At least there's some power left."

"Yeah, just enough power to see a dead end passageway and a mountain coming down on top of us!"

Beckett sighed. "Think, Rodney! We need to find a way out of here!"

"I can't just keep pressing every button, Carson! There's a process to this...it takes time. I might hit the one for disintegrate, or garbage chute!"

"This isn't bloody Star Wars Rodney. We don't have a choice!"

Their eyebrows shot up as a voice crackled from their radios, barely audible above the static. "...kay...shep..." Rodney fumbled for the wire curled around his ear. "Sheppard! Thank god! We're trapped in some underground cave system. It's collapsing!"

"...Kay, break...up."

Rodney rolled his eyes and enunciated loudly, "trapped—alien cave—dying!"  
A bass tremble shook the floor of the cave, surged slowly up the walls and across the ceiling, searching for veins and weaknesses in the remaining rock of the passage.

Static crackled from the radio and Beckett pulled Rodney's hand down from his ear, where it had hovered nervously since he'd activated his com to talk to Sheppard. "We're out of time, Rodney!"

Panicked, Rodney looked around, eyes shifting madly as he tried to think. "All right, start checking the walls for any breaks in the surface, anything that might indicate a panel, or door." As Beckett moved away, Rodney scanned the rest of the symbols, trying to figure out if there was some pictogram for "travel" or "door" or even "help". Or for that matter, any he should stay away from, like some anachronistic Big Red Button of Doom.

After hesitating for a moment in indecision, he closed both eyes, drew in a breath, squinted one eye open, and reached slowly for the second symbol. When nothing seemed to happen, he squinted up, then left and right, and finally opened his other eye in relief. "Carson…" To Rodney's horror, when he turned around, Beckett was gone and he was all alone beneath a rapidly collapsing mountain of rock.

"No!" He ran toward the opposite wall.

**TBC...? **Shall I continue? Hmmm...


	4. Chapter 4

Those who have stayed with me so far, I reward you with this next chapter...more team...more hurt...and longer length.

To everyone who has put this little thing on story alert or favorite, or taken the time press the button at the end of the chapter and write a review, I thank you all! It makes writing that much more rewarding! _Wags_

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**Chapter 4**

"Found a gun; watch, too."

Sheppard glanced down, following the line of Ronon's boot as it swept through the underbrush. He squatted to grab the nine mil that lay discarded, tucked it away behind his back, then bent to pull the ruined watch from the ground. He shook the dirt from it, frowning as small internal parts rattled and fell from the fractured crystal face. "Could be Beckett's, or Rodney's. They both have the same watch." He keyed his earpiece as he stood. "McKay, Beckett, come in...Mckay, this is Sheppard, respond."

"Sh...thank go...trap'd...undergr...sys..."

"Trapped?" Sheppard squinted at Ronon and shook his head. "McKay, you're breaking up."

After a pause, McKay's voice crackled through the static. "...apped...alien cave..dying!"

The ground shook beneath their feet and static screamed in Sheppard's ear before the line went dead. "What the hell! Rodney? Beckett? McKay, come in! McKay!" Sheppard keyed his radio again. "Teyla, did you feel that tremor back at the village?"

"Yes, John. Helero says the stones are walking."

Sheppard remembered a year ago, speaking to the village leader about the Shmes' beliefs, watching him clutch his simple stone amulet reverently as he spoke.

"_The land to the west is sacred. The black stones will walk once more and the land will fail if any but the blessed step past the boundary. We wear these symbols of power to connect us with the Wanderers."_

"Oh, crap." Sheppard thought back to McKay's garbled message, and rekeyed his mike. "Teyla, I have a feeling that whatever's going on, it might have something to do with McKay and Beckett. Contact Atlantis. I want Zelenka here ASAP. We'll swing by and pick him up as soon as he's through the gate." Sheppard nodded at Ronon and they both turned back toward the village. "We also need to grab a tour guide. Is Helero still around?"

"Yes, John, he is here."

"We need him to take us to the stones he told me about and any nearby caves."

A small figure popped up in the darkness from behind one of the trees. "He will not. I will take you."

Sheppard and Ronon's weapons automatically flew up to a ready position as they squinted into the darkness. Their reflexes were the only thing that kept them from shooting and killing one of the village's children. "Ionto, what the hell!" Sheppard was not pleased. Immediately, he lowered his weapon with exasperation.

Ronon twirled his gun back into its holster and grabbed the kid by the scruff. "You shouldn't be out here. It's dangerous."

Ionto stared doe-eyed at the Satedan's holster. "My brother fights the Coceme. I am not much younger."

Ronon settled him back on his feet and the two men started off again toward the village. Sheppard waved his P90 and Ionto skittered ahead of them. "You'd better come with us. Helero'll have a fit if we don't get his youngest back to him."

Ionto seemed unimpressed by the danger of the surrounding battles and more interested in idle chit-chat. "Helero is both the high priest and he is my father. He used to go once every pass to take offerings to the gods in a cave in the western forest. Since you were here last, the area between has been held by the Coceme and it was too dangerous to go. He believes his lack of appeasement to the gods has brought sickness upon the children." Ionto rolled a shoulder non-comitally and bent to pick up a rock from the forest floor. With a scowl worthy of an Earth teen that brought a wry smile to Sheppard's lips, he chucked it away into the distance. "The old stories frighten him. They do not frighten me."

Sheppard eyed the child as he sidestepped a patch of fern-like plants. "You've already been out there, haven't you?"

"I have. I have followed him to the cave. I remember."

Sheppard keyed his radio again. "Teyla, did you speak with Helero?"

"I did, John. He will not help."

The Colonel was silent for a moment in thought before he snagged Ionto's arm to turn him around. "All right, looks like you're our new tour guide."

Ionto smiled and hurried away.

"I don't like this." Ronon frowned as he watched the kid disappear into the darkness.

"Neither do I, but we don't have time to stand around threatening Helero. Their religion has taught them that the forest is off limits to outsiders. As the village priest, Helero is going to be the hardest to convince. On Earth, the kids of religious parents can be the most rebellious, and it seems like Ionto's proud of his defiance. I'd rather not get between the two of them, but I think it's the only choice we've got right now if we're going to find Rodney and Beckett."

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Zelenka clutched his laptop tighter to his chest as the hoots and cries of strange animals echoed in the distance. He jumped as Sheppard's hand drifted out of the dim forest and landed on his arm to pull him forward. "C'mon, Doctor Z, save the sightseeing for later."

"You realize, I am not fond of field work, Colonel." Radek scooted forward again. Even though he was flanked by Sheppard and Ronon, he felt uneasy marching through the alien landscape.

"You did fine on that planet with all the children."

Radek snorted. "Ah yes. Rodney derived great pleasure in sending me there to work on the ZPM shield. Was pulling ornamental swamp weeds from my braided hair for a week." The Czech scientist made his way carefully around the gnarled roots of an ancient tree and stopped short behind Sheppard.

The Colonel was paused in awe before a black stone monolith. After a moment of surveying it from a few feet away, Sheppard leaned in as if expecting his reflection to appear on its smooth onyx surface. If anything, the monolith seemed to somehow be drawing in the available light. "Earth to Hal," He joked.

"Teyla hated that movie," Ronon grumbled behind him.

"2001? S'a classic!".

Ionto reverently placed one thin hand on the stone. "We have passed the boundary. The cave is not far from here." The boy headed off down the path, followed briskly by Sheppard.

Zelenka eased forward and looked around, trying to see some sort of division in the forest that demarcated the sacred boundary. "The walking stones Helero spoke of?"

"It's just a legend." Ronon shrugged a shoulder.

"Ah, but legends sometimes have their basis in fact."

The Satedan glanced sideways at the base of the stone. "Don't see any legs."

"Sometimes, I do not appreciate your sense of humor."

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After Beckett's disappearance, Rodney had rushed toward the other side of the collapsing cave, only to experience a momentary breathlessness, and then find himself nursing a fat lip. With a groan, he pushed away from the polished onyx-black wall he'd taken a header into and turned around, finding himself in a downward-sloping hallway lit by the same glowing spheres that had been hovering in the blocked off tunnel. He massaged his face, feeling a headache coming on, on top of everything else. "What the hell! God dammit, I'm getting tired of this!"

He spied the same symbol on the wall that he'd pressed before, and with a sigh, he collected one of the busted spheres, threw it down on the ground next to the wall and pressed the symbol. No hologram, and the sphere stayed right where it was on the floor. Did the transport, or whatever it was, not work both ways or was something wrong with the circuitry?

"I'm down here, Rodney."

"Carson?" With one hand on the wall for support, Rodney headed slowly down the passageway toward Carson's voice, pulling his stiffening leg along behind him.

Carson was standing in a room in front of a gently sloping wall that receded up into the darkness as far as the eye could see. Its face was covered with what looked like groupings of dots and more glyphs. One glyph was blinking. Rodney turned slowly in a circle. Four walls, one with another symbol at chest height next to an alcove, but no other panels or obvious exits. He passed Carson and continued on his way over to the small alcove. The symbol on the wall was the same as the others; he pressed it, but no hologram ghosted into existence. _We're not getting out this way either. We are so screwed_. He leaned against the wall, exhausted and let his head dip. A light hand on his shoulder startled him.

"Are you all right, Rodney?"

"I hit the wall when I transported, or teleported―or whatever―down here." Rodney's hand fluttered around weakly. "I've got a headache on top of everything else."

"Aye, so do I, and I can see a bruise already spreading down your chin." Carson manipulated Rodney's face carefully for a moment, trying to hide his worry. "But your blood sugar's probably dropping, too. Do you have anything to eat?"

Rodney smiled a bit sickly as he started searching through his vest for a Power Bar. "I can't seem to shake the feeling that the ceiling is about to collapse at any moment." He stared across at the blinking symbol, only managing to take a few bites before he wrapped the snack back up and shoved it in a pocket. Taking a break just felt like delaying the inevitable. He would have to decide what he was going to do.

Taking out the LSD again, he waved it around tiredly. "Still nothing. Whatever this place is, it's either very well shielded, or it's something the detector can't, well...detect," he finished lamely. As he stowed the LSD, he stared at Carson a moment. "Did you hurt your wrist again?"

Carson looked down. His abrasion had opened up and his fingers had begun to swell a bit. "Bloody hell." Red spattered slowly onto the floor. He tested range of motion and made quick note of pain level, numbness and tingling. _Slowly progressing._

"Bloody hell is right. How could you not notice that?"

"I was a bit preoccupied, Rodney." Since they'd used all of their field dressings on Rodney's leg, Carson made short work of tearing the hem of his shirt and wrapping a make-shift bandage. The fast developing bruise on Rodney's chin and his own sudden bleed were worrisome. Carson glanced down at Rodney's leg. The bandage was a uniform red and the blood had just started to work its way into his BDUs. Unfortunately, he couldn't do very much for either of them right now except keep an eye on the symptoms.

Finally, with a small shrug, Rodney reached toward the symbol on the panel—"can't get much worse"—and touched it.

The two men were swept back a few feet by an invisible pressure wave that left them trying to gasp for a moment against frozen diaphragms. Just beneath the surface of the onyx, something shimmered and liquefied, flowing in swirls like black silken lava. A dome appeared above their heads forming an enormous underground planetarium; stars and planets became visible on the ceiling and walls, winking and rotating on a deep space background. A comet shot past leaving a frozen trail of dust in its wake. Their position relative to the celestial objects changed, and the chamber seemed to start moving, zipping by the planets into space, leaving Pegasus behind on the rear wall. Binary stars appeared and danced around each other, joining into a primary, flowing quickly through its life cycle, finally to collapse into a white dwarf. In the far distance, quasars powered by supermassive black holes shone brightly as galaxies crept toward one another in a slow dance toward ultimate destruction. The sense of movement continued as they took off again, heading toward even more distant galaxies.

Carson was stunned. "It's beautiful."

"Hmm."

"Do you know what it means?"

"Could be suggesting some form of history, or study that was being undertaken." Rodney's attention was split between the panel and the dome, as he watched a larger galaxy draw in a smaller one and the two combined, forming one, in a massive cannibalistic collision. "If Sheppard were here, he'd probably make a joke about giant screen savers."

"I'm quite sure." Carson gestured across the panel. "These symbols are everywhere. I'm no expert with pictograms, but none of it looks Ancient to me."

"No, it's not even close. Not Goa'uld, Wraith, Asgard, Genii, or from the pictures I've seen, not even Furling or Nox. And these other markings that surround the writing…something familiar. I think they're constellations…but."

"What is it, Rodney?"

"The ones I recognize from our local cluster are mirror images. They're backwards from how they'd normally be displayed."

Rodney leaned on the center of the panel and his body stiffened as if caught in a massive electrical surge. He was suddenly assaulted by things...things...too many things—so many, and all fighting to be comprehended and understood at the same time. He tried to close his mind down to all but linear thought, pushing overflow to the background, feeling the pain of something expanding where it shouldn't be.

Beneath the screaming, he was drawn first to something beating at both his logic centers and at the same time assaulting his emotions on a base level he'd never encountered before. Even though his brain recognized the terms "flavor" and "color" as the arbitrarily chosen terms to classify quark particles, the experience of flavor as a tactile sensation, and color as a language almost drove him to insanity. The idea of expression, life and language through physics was the only thing keeping him from falling over the edge.

...MALFUNCTION...

With a shriek, the incident was torn away and everything shifted.

Too many things again—existence without eyes or breathing, or a mouth to scream; at the same moment in time, he was everywhere, and everything, and then—

...MALFUNCTION...

Another shift and the universe flipped through a mirror; time ran backward. In some distant way, he could feel blood drip from his nose and his eyes, and coat his teeth. With a painful jolt, time ran forward again and the particles in his body broke out of four dimensional space to slide along the tiny curled loops of thousands of alternate dimensions.

...RECALL PATTERN...ALIGN...

Sensory feed slowed down and one of the dimensions became his destination.

Rodney stepped forward. A scorching desert appeared before him, a dry wind blew pale sand into faint ripples as far as the eye could see. Poking out through the surface of the sand at various distances, strange monoliths sat at angles, dulled by eons of being buffeted by the fine particles blowing through the atmosphere of this dead planet. Through the shading provided by the fingers of his raised hand, he could see twin suns arcing across the purple sky to his right. On the left, a massive orange gas giant with slanted Saturn-like rings hung suspended on the horizon, so large that only the top half of it was visible.

The pattern changed again, and he was pulled elsewhere. A city lay in ruin. Structures left barren so long that any biological life forms once inhabiting them had long since turned to dust. A stale wind ruffled his hair from behind and he turned. A monolith towered above him and he stumbled backward.

_And again._ He stood on a planet of rubble, watching as a pulsar no further away than the moon from the earth, flashed like the beacon from a lighthouse, knowing that as soon as he stepped foot on this world, he should have been killed instantly by the radiation.

Nerve endings screamed as the connection was broken.

Beckett tried to ease Rodney to the floor, but from the way he'd had to go at him, with a shoulder block to break him from the hold of the panel without making skin contact, he wasn't very successful. With the force of the blow, Rodney slid several feet across the floor. Blue tendrils arced across the chamber in a blinding, deafening light show, piercing Rodney's chest. Beckett rushed forward, only to be zapped by an errant bolt, dropping him to one knee as the charge drilled its way through one palm, coursed through his chest and shot out his injured arm. He shouted in pain and then coughed as his heart skipped a beat and then struggled to reset its own pacemaker cells back to within normal limits. With a thunderous boom, the tendrils withdrew from Rodney, dancing across the surface of the panel before disappearing.

Holding his injured arm against his chest, Beckett crawled the rest of the way over to Rodney. The heart was the most vulnerable organ to electricity; arrhythmias, ischemia, pericarditis, pulmonary edema, heart failure...a whole hornets nest of cardiovascular effects to be on the lookout for as well as the most immediate cause of death for most victims of electrical shock, ventricular fibrillation. He curled his fingers around Rodney's jaw, feeling for the carotid. After a moment, he felt a slight flutter. "Come on, Rodney," he pleaded. "Don't you crash on me now. I'm not a bloody ER on wheels."

Carson squeezed his eyes shut, then fished through Rodney's vest and pulled out his EpiPen, setting it on the ground. The usual epi dosage for asystole was more than three times what was in the pen. And most likely, that would need to be followed up with additional drug treatment. Airways, vasopressin and atropine danced through his thoughts as he imagined the futility of one-man CPR.

**TBC**...uh-oh.


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry if you were getting messages that chapter 5 was up. I was having some strange problems with the Document Manager.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

"What is that?" Zelenka stopped in his tracks as blue fire lit up the trees in the distance and the ground vibrated beneath his feet. Somewhere nearby, large shapes lumbered through the forest, sliding along heavily.

The rest of the team had stopped as well to watch the light show, but the sounds in the forest had them turning in circles, trying to catch sight of what was moving just out of reach. "Ionto?" Sheppard gestured out to the trees.

The boy's eyes were wide, but he held steady. "Yes, the stones. They walk in the darkness. It is not safe to be in the open. We must hurry."

"Colonel Sheppard!"

John keyed his mike. "Go, Lorne."

"We were holding at the edge of the forest, and we started to pick up some movement. A black stone just...appeared out of nowhere...right where Jefferson had been standing. A few seconds later, it disappeared. There's no sign of him, sir."

"Crap. All right, fall back to the village with Teyla and wait for us there, we're almost to the cave."

Ronon's face was hidden in the shadows. "Trouble?"

"More than we need.

* * *

Beckett lifted Rodney up to sit against the wall, fumbling with the almost useless fingers of his left hand as his wrist continued to swell alarmingly. He rolled his shoulders a bit as a gnawing ache took hold behind his breast bone. As soon as Rodney's back touched the wall, he reached out to grab Beckett's sleeve with a shaking hand. "Don't you see, it's the language of physics," he mumbled, eyelids drooping. "Colors without eyes, flavors without mouths…I was ev'rywhere 'n ev'rything…must be how a god feels."

Carson frowned, wiping at the blood on Rodney's chin with another piece of his shirt. "I think you touched the power plug, lad. I'm worried about possible internal bleeds from us both." He tapped Rodney on the cheek gently. "Can I get you to open you eyes for me for a moment?"

"Hmm? What?"

"Your vision? Can you see all right?"

Rodney turned his head away from the ministrations, feebly slapping at Beckett's hand to wipe at his own mouth with a sleeve, grimacing at the heavy taste of iron as he swallowed. "Why?"

Patiently, Carson pulled Rodney's arm back down and wiped some more blood from beneath one of his eyes with a thumb. "Sometimes a more serious hemorrhage can occur behind the eye and threaten the retina."

"What the hell is that from?" Rodney roused once he saw the red staining Carson's finger. "Oh great, I get fried by blue lightning and now I'm going to go blind."

Carson touched Rodney lightly on the shoulder and then lifted his chin. "C'mon, let's have a look." Carson pulled his penlight out and checked Rodney's pupil reaction, and peripheral vision. "That's good, you're doing fine."

Rodney's hand dropped to the floor, limp, and he started to list to the side.

"Wait, we'll have none of that." As Carson sat down next to Rodney to prop him up, a cough worked its way out of his own chest. He pressed a hand to his ribs as the ache beneath his breastbone turned into a sharp twinge that seemed to be radiating a bit to his neck and shoulder. Surreptitiously, he felt for the pulse at his neck. A little too fast. Not palpitations, yet, but he had a sickly feeling what might be going on. After a moment, he finally sat back, settled himself in as comfortable a position as he could manage, and gestured at the panel and the chamber. "Whatever this place is, it doesn't seem compatible with human life."

Rodney drew in a tired breath as if gathering his thoughts. "I saw incredible things, Carson. Horrible things. Things I could never explain in a million years. These aliens might have had the technology to pull energy from countless universes in the multiverse. The entire planet could've been a station."

"Back to Star Wars again, are we?"

Rodney rolled his eyes in response, momentarily energized by Carson's geek reference, and then coughed, spraying a bit of blood-flecked phlegm across his shirt. "No, I mean, think about it. The Ancients could build flying cities and Stargates, and on the odd solar event, they've transported us through time. But I connected with something...I went places and saw things"—his voice trailed off weakly, so that the next word was barely more than an exhalation—"things."

"Where are they, then?"

"Ancients 'r gone; Furlings 'r AWOL. And the Asgard..."

Carson nodded as he picked up in an area he understood all too well. "Aye, for all of their technology, the Asgard aren't doing very well, either. They've been locked into a never ending cycle of diminishing returns thanks to their program of perpetual cloning." Carson looked thoughtfully around the chamber again, and then winced at a particularly sharp twinge in his chest, feeling his heartbeat surge. He sat up straighter to compensate. "Perhaps something in this particular universe was not compatible with these alien lifeforms either, and this outpost was abandoned long ago, like the Ancients abandoned so many of their own failed experiments."

Rodney nodded. "I saw worlds. Devoid of life, every one of them."

The floor shook again and pieces of the star-speckled ceiling rained down on them. Blue fire crackled across the panel once more.

* * *

Ionto fingered the smashed, rough edges of the black onyx wall. "The last time I was here, it did not look like this."

Ronon knelt by a small circle of rocks around burnt wood littering the floor of the cave. "Campfire. Looks like the Coceme have been here."

Ionto nodded. "They have been known to destroy what they do not understand. Our idols, statues, shrines, whenever they take our land, they feed everything to their fires, and smash what will not burn."

Zelenka stood by the main wall, pressing his glasses up his nose, trying to study the symbols higher up that could not be reached by Coceme hands. "This I have never seen before. Ionto, you said you watched your father when he brought offerings—food, flowers?"

"Yes, he placed them near the wall and touched his symbol of power. Then the gods accepted his offering."

Zelenka moved closer to Ionto and pointed to his necklace. "There was a symbol that matched your father's on the wall?" At Ionto's nod he continued. "Do all of the Shme have necklaces such as this?"

"All of the tribe wear stones in different forms from birth through life, but not all have symbols of power. They are handed down once an elder dies."

"Do you still see your father's symbol here?"

Ionto walked to the side wall and waved his hand over its surface. A small design blinked into existence, and then slowly solidified in the rock. "This is my father's symbol." Ionto stepped back proudly.

"Colonel if you would please."

Sheppard swung his P90 across his shoulder and then tossed assorted stones over to the wall. He stepped to the side of the symbol and pressed it, but nothing happened. He pressed the symbol a few more times.

Zelenka waved a hand. "Is not a crosswalk. I think power has been compromised. Pressing more will not bring results if nothing happens first time." He reached toward the boy. "May I see that?"

Ionto shrugged and took off the braided thong holding his own onyx symbol.

The symbol was beautiful. Neither painted nor carved, it looked like there was a natural vein in the pendant. Zelenka traced it with his thumb and was surprised when he felt a slight tingle in his palm and the symbol began to glow ever so faintly. He let the pendant drop to dangle by its leather thong and very slowly, he walked toward the wall. Just a few feet from the wall, it started to lift away as if being tugged upward by an invisible string. He let it go and it sailed away, impacting and melding seamlessly. The leather thong dropped to the ground, severed. Zelenka's eyebrows shot up as a tiny blue charge rolled across the now integrated symbol. "Colonel, if I am right, we need all of the Shme necklaces."

* * *

Beckett closed his eyes and let his head rest back against the wall in exhaustion. Aside from the chest pain and rapid heart rate, he was starting to have a bit of difficulty breathing. He coughed again and winced, opening one eye to look at Rodney. The physicist was fumbling to open his vest pocket.

"Here, let me help you." Beckett ripped the Velcro open with his good hand and pulled the LSD out.

"Is this what you wanted?"

Rodney nodded slightly. "Gonna try to boost the radio signal."

"Dare I even ask how you're going to do that?"'

"If it even works..." Rodney drew in an exhausted breath, "...it'll probably only last a few seconds before burning out."

"I thought these plastic ear pieces were non conductive."

Rodney snorted then choked on the blood in his throat before continuing in a raspy voice. "The casing, yes, but the internal wires are only rated for a small amount of current."

Half an hour later, Rodney was surrounded by the inner workings of both his and Beckett's earpieces, parts of the LSD were strewn across his lap and Carson's LED flashlight had also succumbed to the technological jumble. Rodney's fingers shook as he picked up a small crystal wafer and stared at it in confusion. He looked over at Carson. "What am I doing?"

Beckett's hand closed over Rodney's. "Nothing, my friend. Just rest." He started clearing some of the pieces of hardware from Rodney's lap, knowing in his heart that neither of them had much time left.

**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

Almost done. Sorry for the delay. School has begun.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

"How many amulets did we manage to get?" Sheppard asked Lorne at the mouth of the cave system.

"Once I convinced them that the plague was connected to the Coceme setting up camp and smashing religious artifacts across their sacred territory, and that we could fix it, most of the Shme gave up their necklaces without problem.

"Where was Teyla?"

"She didn't approve of my method of lying to the Shme, but none of her political wrangling was doing any good. And Helero was proving especially difficult. Once he found out Ionto was out in the middle of things, though, he changed his mind." Lorne handed over the double fistful of amulets on leather chords.

"Head back to the village to keep watch out for Coceme stragglers and keep the Atlantis medical teams safe while they're still working on the kids. We don't know if these rocks will start moving around again."

"Yes, Sir."

John hustled back inside with his booty so Zelenka could continue resetting the board one amulet at a time.

Ronon was leaning up against the wall past the last bend in the cave, twisting his blaster forwards and back on his finger, only glancing up through his loose dreadlocks every few minutes to observe the progress the diminutive Czech scientist was making. He didn't need to look around to know Sheppard was walking up behind him. "Got the stuff?" Ronon twirled his blaster smoothly back into its holster.

"Lorne told a few little white lies to get the job done. Teyla's not too happy about it, but she's a trooper. She'll say some Athosian prayers for us and get over it in no time." Sheppard stepped up to Zelenka and handed him the amulets, frowning as the scientist waved him away absently toward a laptop on a large flat rock. Apparently, Zelenka and his new helper Ionto needed more study time before trying to assimilate the amulets onto the main board.

Sheppard looked at his watch, trying not to let impatience creep into his voice, but sometimes it seemed like the expedition scientists needed a constant prod to stay in rescue mode and out of scientific study mode. "How's it going Zelenka? We're on a short schedule here."

"Yes, yes, colonel, but the object is of course to recover Rodney and Carson in one piece and not kill anyone else in the process, hmm?"

* * *

Rodney's head lolled as something brushed against his face. "Ronon?" he mumbled, trying to raise a hand to brush the Satedan's long spiraling dreads out of the way. He grunted as hands and arms reached beneath him and lifted.

"Relax, McKay, I got you." Rodney tried to obey until another voice called out nearby.

"Whoa there, Carson! Ronon, we better get moving!"

"You got him, Sheppard?" Ronon called over his shoulder.

"Yeah." Sheppard's voice strained momentarily and then evened out after the sound of a slight scuffle and rustling of clothing.

"Sheppard?" Rodney reached to the side, but his head just wouldn't follow.

"I'm here, Rodney." Sheppard sounded out of breath, but his voice was gentle. "We're getting you out, Carson, too. We're getting both of you out. You're gonna both be just fine."

Rodney took a deep breath, let out a sigh and then his blurry eyesight dimmed into darkness.

* * *

The jumper bearing the medical team from the village was setting down in the clearing just as the group of survivors was struggling from the mouth of the cave. As soon as the ramp hit the ground, one of the expedition's doctors was motioning them inside. Ronon set Rodney down on one of the bench seats with relative ease and then he helped Sheppard lower Beckett from his fireman's carry on the opposite side. Bags of medical gear were slid across the floor and a medic and nurse practically descended on the two injured men.

"What happened? Give me a rundown." The doctor spared a glance at a young village boy, who was doing his best to support a partially crispy and wild-haired—though ambulatory—Zelenka up the jumper ramp. The boy nodded, so he motioned for them to take a seat. Quickly, the doctor turned his attention back to the two unconscious patients.

A nurse already had Beckett's arm in a pressure cuff while the medic was pulling the collar of Rodney's black t-shirt down to listen to his chest with a stethoscope. The medic would be fairly autonomous to a degree, so the doctor turned to the nurse and Beckett first.

Colonel Sheppard still seemed a bit winded from carrying Beckett out of the cave. "He collapsed after we got inside the chamber. Said he was okay; wanted us to help Rodney first. The next thing I knew, his lips were blue and he was gasping for air, holding his chest." Sheppard stayed down on one knee next to the bench and his eyes shifted between Beckett and Rodney.

The nurse had finished her primary assessment and was fitting Beckett with an oxygen mask. "Muffled heart sounds, looks like there might be some distension of the veins in his neck. BP and radial pulse changes on inspiration."

The doctor watched as his CMO fought for breath, fogging up the O2 mask. "All right, get the EKG leads on and start a line with normal saline." He searched through the medical pack for a drug to increase cardiac output while the nurse efficiently threaded the bevel of a needle into Beckett's arm, released the tourniquet and threaded the catheter. A vial of dobutamine quickly appeared in the doctor's hand, and he jammed a needle and syringe through the rubber stopper, pulling 400mg of the clear liquid and injecting it into the IV bag that the nurse had handed to Sheppard to hold aloft.

Ronon was still at Rodney's side, his large hands around a clear plastic IV bag the medic had thrust toward him with instructions to apply pressure that was meant to slightly increase the infusion rate, whatever that meant. If it helped Rodney, Ronon would stay here all day squeezing the little bag. The medic adjusted the flow on the oxygen mask he'd fitted over Rodney's nose and mouth and bent to check pulse and respiration again.

The doctor was just finishing up with Beckett. "I want a BP check every 5 minutes and a transthoracic echocardiogram as soon as we get back to the infirmary. How's Rodney doing?"

"Hypovolemic, probably bleeding internally. Blood pressure's bottoming out. I've got him on normal saline, wide open and O2." The medic grabbed a nearby field pack and shoved it beneath Rodney's legs to improve the venous blood return.

"Try to keep the rate at 1 Liter per fifteen minutes. If his BP is still dangerously low after the fluids are in, we'll piggyback a dopamine drip. Gary, you can get him under the scanner while we take care of Beckett. If the bleeds are big enough, he might be headed for surgery. With both of them hemorrhaging, and Beckett showing signs of Beck's Triad, I'm worried about cardiac tamponade. We may have to prep for a pericardiocentesis."

* * *

"Dobrý den! Hell-o!" Zelenka waved at Rodney and Carson happily from his infirmary bed across the aisle. "Hello!"

"Yes, yes, hello." Rodney groaned and glanced over at Beckett, who was reclining in an identical bed next to his own. "What did you say was wrong with him again?"

"As I've been told, all of his scans are normal. His brain has just been a bit scrambled by the electrical shock from the panel back on the planet. Hence the confusion and short term memory loss, and reversion to his native language. All temporary, I'm sure."

"Why did nurse numbnut have to teach him to say 'hello'...and he can't even remember he said it to me five minutes ago!"

"Nancy has been trying to equate English words with what she thinks he's saying in Czech, Rodney. The other Czech scientist on the expedition is busy offworld, and we want him to start talking again as soon as possible. I know it's not scientific by any means, but a wee bit at a time will go a long way toward re-establishing his connection to us and his life here on Atlantis."

"So what happened to us back there; why all the blood? Biro nattered on about something called...uh...thrombo...?"

"Thrombocytopenia. Several things can cause thrombocytopenia. including chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer patients. But that side effect usually doesn't show up for six to ten days after treatment...which is troubling, because the onset of our symptoms was so sudden. Human physiology certainly doesn't seem to react well to something in that environment. You were more directly exposed, Rodney, perhaps as a result of your contact with the panel, so your symptoms were more pronounced."

Rodney looked even more stricken. "Chemotherapy? What, now I'm going to loose what little hair I've got, too? That is so not fair!"

Beckett chuckled. "Unfortunately, we can't be sure, but hair loss is not a certainty with all cancer treatments, and according to our bloodwork and scans, we weren't actually exposed systemically to any known chemical or radiological elements. Biro is stumped, the poor thing." Beckett eyed Rodney rubbing his receding hairline. "Expect a wait of about two to three weeks for that particular side effect to make itself known."

"Joy."

Sheppard cruised in and squatted a hip on Rodney's bed. Smiling broadly, he looked around at all three patients smugly. "How are the men of the hour?"

"Voodoo reigns supreme in this chamber of horrors."

"Hell-o!"

Rodney squinted at Zelenka in annoyance. "I rest my case."

To which Beckett laughed gently before turning to Sheppard. "How are the children fairing?"

"Doing better." Sheppard rubbed his hands together before continuing with a nod. "We've got a whole med team there right now attending to it. Seems a group of them had made it a game to see who could sneak the farthest into part of a cave system they'd found. Once the doc saw what happened to the two of you, he did some more pointed questioning and one of the boys fessed up to being the ring leader. The hard part was getting the two of you out of the chamber. Thank Zelenka."

Rodney scoffed. "The man's practically a vegetable right now, for all he's worth. How'd the great Czechoslovakian OZ get us out anyway?"

"Ionto, Helero's son took us into the forest and one of the surface caves his father's been visiting yearly. Turns out all of their amulets were carved from a wall in one of the other caves. Lucky for them, they chose amulets with power signatures, but none of the nasty side-effects.

Z fit them on the control panel and we got some power to the transporter. Enough to get the two of you out, anyway. Fit wasn't perfect, I guess, and Z got zapped by some stray voltage."

Beckett cringed. "Aye, I think I know how that feels."

"How'd you get permission to even go near the place?" Rodney yanked at his IV tubing in annoyance, setting off an alarm. He scowled at being confined, and then settled, waiting for the alarm to quiet.

Sheppard raised an eyebrow at Beckett over Rodney's head. Typical Rodney antics. "Didn't ask. In short, Elizabeth sent backup, the Coceme turned tail, and we threatened to leave the Shme without medical or military support."

"Shmucks," Rodney mumbled from his bed. "Have we sent any scientific teams to start researching the cave systems?" he began hopefully.

Sheppard shook his head. "Sorry, Rodney. The whole thing collapsed soon after we took off in the jumper. All that's left of the Shmes' sacred shrine and assorted cave systems is a bunch of smoking holes in the ground. I'm afraid we'll have to be satisfied with your firsthand report. Besides, Helero's still not talking to us for destroying said 'shrine'. The only reason we're still allowed around the village is because we're curing the children, and we're keeping the Coceme at bay. Plus, I think Teyla's finally managed to win him over a bit."

Rodney abandoned the annoyances of the IV tubing and started plucking at invisible lint on his blanket. "The Prime Directive takes another hit as we destroy the sacred beliefs of another civilization."

Beckett looked puzzled.

"Sci-fi reference." Sheppard supplied.

"Oh…I'm afraid my knowledge of the science-fiction references ends at Star Wars."

Rodney scowled into his own little world. "You won't believe where I went when I connected with the panel. A race so alien that it might almost make you insane to experience it. Distant worlds deserted for who knows how many millennia. All littered with those black monoliths." He looked up hopefully. "At least tell me we have the stones to study."

Sheppard shook his head. "Seeing as they're responsible for killing one of my men, and we still don't know what sort of effects they might have with prolonged exposure, even with the control centers gone, they're off limits for the time being. Maybe once you and Carson are back on your feet, you'll be able to come up with some appropriate safety protocals."

Rodney sighed in frustration and sunk down under the covers. Perhaps the greatest discovery in Pegasus since the Ancients, and half of it had turned into a smoking hole, the rest was out of his reach while he lounged away hooked up to these wires and monitors.

A nurse walked into the infirmary with the first of the dinner trays and headed for Radek's bed. He sat up straighter at her approach and raised his arm as if to flag down a passing motorist. "Hell-o! Promiňte, víte, kde je turistická kancelář?" _Excuse me, do you know where the tourist office is?_

She smiled as she drew closer to him. "How are you Dr. Zelenka?"

Zelenka pushed his glasses up on his nose and peered at her intently for a moment, trying to process and not succeeding. "Hmm?"

"I've got your dinner here. Something I'm told tastes just like pork. I'm sure you're going to love it."

He reached for her arm as she set the tray down on the side table. "Jsi krásná." _You're __beautiful._ His previous look of confusion turned to one of adoration as he let his fingers trail down to grab her hand. "Vezmeš si mě?" _Will you marry me?_

The nurse pat his arm and disentangled herself. She took the cover off his tray and handed him his fork. Love of his life forgotten, Zelenka stared at his food for a moment in wonder before he tapped his tray in irritation and called out across the infirmary: "Kmotře Petře, nepřepepřete mi toho vepře." _Godfather Peter, don't put too much pepper on my pork._

**TBC...**just the epilogue to go


	7. Chapter 7

**Epilogue**

Rodney stared quietly out the large viewing port of the Daedalus, resisting the urge to reach up and scratch beneath the baseball cap he'd borrowed from Sheppard. Light greens and blues lit his face, reflected from the spectacularly colored debris and gases making up the accretion disc of the black hole that had once been the Shmes' home world.

"Disappointed?"

He hadn't heard Sheppard's approach. "I'd be crazy to say I wasn't." Rodney shook his head. "Everything is still a bit mixed-up in my head, but the possibilities of studying a race so alien to our own…discovering more about their technology…I guess it was too much to hope for."

Sheppard nodded and studied the black hole. Rodney could hear the roughness to his voice when he continued. "We thought the collapse of the caves was the end of it. It was quite a surprise when Lorne dialed in to tell us that the planet had destabilized. Whoever those aliens were, they did everything big. At least it held together long enough for us to get most of the natives evacuated to the Alpha site."

"Hmm."

John shoved his hands in his pockets as the two men stared in silence, then he elbowed Rodney. "At least you didn't loose all of your hair."

Rodney pushed him away. "What? You jerk! I just lost enough to look like a flea bitten hobo thanks to whatever we were exposed to in that underground control center! And somehow Beckett managed to escape without loosing a single piece." Rodney's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I bet it's something in that hair gel he uses."

"No doubt."

Rodney glared for a moment at Sheppard and then rolled his eyes. "Look who I'm talking to about hair gel. Mr. Defying the Laws of Gravity himself."

"In my case, hair gel actually wouldn't make a difference. On a good note, I hear that SGA-12 ran across a civilization that has a fruit they rub on their heads to stimulate hair growth."

"Oh, that's just perfect." Rodney snorted disgustedly. "I suppose it's yellow and tastes like citrus?"

"No, it's actually purple. But it does seem to make a tart drink, too, so you might be out of luck unless you want a swollen head."

The two men turned away from the port and headed back toward the interior of the ship. "Thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll just hold onto your hat for a while, if that's all right with you."

Sheppard clapped Rodney on the shoulder. "Sure, buddy, no problem."

**Ende**...well that's it, my first foray into 'gate.


End file.
